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[[left margin]] FROM THE FLYING PIONEERS BIOGRAPHIERS OF HAROLD E. MOREHOUSE [[/left margin]]

to mount a small engine in one of their biplane gliders and to conduct power tests. Chanute would not agree to this as he felt that not enough was known about the control of their craft to warrant the experiment.
As a result of this disagreement Herring left and moved to St. Joseph, Michigan where he continued his work alone. He had a barn in back of his house which he kept under rigid lock and key and it soon became known as the "Mystery Barn." At St. Joseph he was financed by a banker and aviation buff of Elmira, New York, Matthias C. Arnot. There in 1898 Herring went ahead and built a glider, or probably what should be called a large flying model, powered by a compressed air engine. Reportedly it was flown successfully unmanned, then evidently he made several unsuccessful attempts to become airbourne himself with this machine from the beach nearby late that year. It is recorded that Chanute came to St. Joseph to witness these trials. this power glider was stated to weigh about 90 pounds complete. Herring continued his experiments there but apparently was out of work and looking for something to do on occasion. 
In early 1902 he was trying to obtain employment with Hudson Maxim on his aviation projects, but was not successful. He again approached Chanute about doing more work with his gliders in an attempt to beat the reported performance of the Wright brothers at Kitty Hawk. Evidently Chanute finally agreed to let Herring rebuild one of their earlier multi-wing gliders at St. Joseph and then made arrangements to take it to Kitty Hawk in 1902 at the time the Wrights were there. Chanute and Herring arrived there on October 5th with their glider and Herring made his first short glide on the 8th. They remained there until October 14th but Herring was unable to even approach the work being done by the Wrights. 
Herring lived at St. Joseph until 1904 when he moved to Hempstead, Long Island, New York to continue his work. There in 1907 he entered the competition to supply a plane to the United States Government, along with the Wright Brothers. Orville Wright started demonstrating their plane at Ft. Meyer, Virginia on September 17, 1908 but Herring had not as yet delivered any part of his machine and
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